I wish I were in New York this week to hear Howard Stern rant about CBS, using all the words to describe them that he could not use on the air. CBS is an ass.

CBS sued Stern and his agent yesterday, charging that they engaged in misappropriation by promoting satellite before he left the air.

What a crock, what a childish humiliation for CBS and Leslie Moonves. Stern could not have been more open and the network could have stopped him anytime. Throughout that year, many in the industry wondered why they didn’t. But they didn’t. And the reason for that is apparent: They wanted to eek every last rating point out of Stern because they knew that once he left, they’d be screwed.

And screwed, they are. These idiots without ears put David Lee Roth on the air. He is an utter disaster, utterly unlistenable, and the ratings prove that. Roth has lost three-quarters of Stern’s audience and the ratings are in justifiable freefall. The picture in the precious 18-to-34 demographic — the audience that CBS built the so-called Free FM to retain — is downright devastating:

Arbitrend ratings released yesterday show that in January, Roth’s first month, WFNY’s morning share among its target audience of 18- to 34-year-olds fell from 13.8% to 1.3%. … Stern replacements in Chicago and Los Angeles, Rover and Adam Carolla, also fell sharply.